YouSaid · the spoken record

Vladimir Kara-Murza

lines on the record: 89
first: 2020-09-14
most recent: 2020-09-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“When Russia has a government that respects democracy, respects the rule of law, respects the rights of its own citizens at home, it will also become a responsible citizen on the international stage. So, of course, when democracy returns to Russia, this will be first and foremost to the benefit of us, of Russian citizens. But I think it will also be beneficial to the entire international community to have a government in Russia that respects the notions of democracy and rule of law at home.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Domestically one day woke up to the first territorial annexation in Europe since the end of the Second World War, which is what Mr. Putin did in Crimea. Those things go together. And so, you know, there's been this kind of traditional line of argument by the advocates of so-called realpolitik, who say that, you know, when it comes to choosing between values and interest, values and interests when it comes to dealing with the West dealing with Russia, the West should choose interests. Forget about values, choose interest and do this kind of in a pragmatic way. Well, there is no conflict between interest and values because at the end of the day,”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The way the Kremlin behaves externally in foreign policy is a direct reflection of how it behaves domestically. Domestic repression and external aggression in Russia go hand in hand always. And by the way, it goes both ways. So when Russia itself was striving for democracy in the early 90s, it also helped President Yeltsin was instrumental, for example, in helping the Baltic states achieve independence from the Soviet Union. That's unimaginable today, but that's what happened because when Russia is democratic inside, it also behaves as a responsible citizen on the international stage. And the reverse is true. So a government that abuses and violates the rights of its own people and that violates its own laws and its own constitution, why should it respect international norms or the interests of the international order? It's not going to. And so, sure enough, you know, those leaders in the West who have for years been turning a blind eye on political repression in Russia, on election fraud in Russia, on media censorship in Russia, and all the rest of the abuses.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They did, yeah, they're pretty open about it, is she? And I think what's also important to keep in mind, which was, I think, something that in the initial years of Putin's regime, many Western leaders either ignored or chose not to notice.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Connected bank to the far right Front National Party in France and on the French elections. And so if it's proven that he has tried to do the same here, that shouldn't surprise anybody. And I think it's also important to”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I will say that if it is indeed Proven as a result of all these investigations and probes and indictments and hearings that the Kremlin and the Putin regime has indeed interfered in the US election in 2016, that frankly should not come as a surprise to anyone. And the Putin regime has been interfering in elections for years. The first elections they've began to interfere with were elections in Russia. Because, you know, when Putin came to power, we had democratic competitive elections in our country. Now we don't. They've made sure of that. So those were the first elections they've meddled with. And then increasingly they began to meddle into the affairs, political affairs of other countries. Initially, the post-communist countries on our perimeter, you know, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, the Baltic states, then going further into Western Europe, for example, just a few years ago, and this is only from what we know from public information. Just imagine how many things we still don't know. But from what we know publicly, a few years ago, there was a multi-million euro loan issued from a Moscow.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, as you rightly said, I don't think it's my place to comment on the domestic political scene in the US. I think you have enough Russian strine to meddle in your domestic politics. I don't want to be one more.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Voice their protest and the endemic corruption at the lack of accountability and transparency at the lack of free and fair elections and all the abuses and the policies of the Putin regime. And don't forget to go out to demonstrate against the government in Russia is not like to go and demonstrate against the administration here in the US. Here we have your First Amendment rights. You're protected by police when you go out and demonstrate against the president in Russia. You're beaten up and arrested by police if you go and demonstrate against the government. Thousands of people are dying.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Meaningful picture of what's happening in Russia today. Those mass protests that have been happening all across the country in this past year alone, beginning in March of 2017 and March of last year, when you have tens of thousands of people who are going out to the streets all across the country,”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there were two prominent opposition leaders in Russia who were planning to challenge Vladimir Putin this year in 2018. One was Boris Nemtsov, who was not in the ballot because he was killed three years ago. And the other was Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner, who was not on the ballot because he was deliberately barred from running. With a court sentence, by the way, that was already overturned by the European Court of Human Rights. But as we've just been discussing, legal niceties is not what bothers the Putin regime usually. So, you know, if you take your opponents out beforehand, it's not difficult to win. And the meaning of this election which has had so-called election, which is had in March, is no greater than the meaning of elections we had in the Soviet Union with 99% of people voted for the Communist Party. When the communist regime collapsed in three days in August of 1991, not many people remember those 99%. So it's absolutely meaningless to talk about popularity and elections. And I think a much more...”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, dictators are usually very good at producing high election results, so hard of heart 75%, Mugabe had more than 90%, Ceausescu had 99%, the call remaining communist dictator unless the election quote-unquote he ever took part in. You know, it's really, I was going to say funny, but that's actually not funny. That's quite tragic that so much of the world media, including respectable world media, still refer to elections in Russia as elections without quotation marks. And, you know, what you just said with a smile on your face, that Putin was re-elected, many people say it seriously. Oh, yeah, Putin was re-elected. He got 76% of vote. He's really popular among Russian citizens. Well, you know, it's not difficult. It's not difficult to win when your opponents are not on the ballot.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Much, I mean, what can I do? I can't not eat, not drink, not breathe. I mean, the only practical thing I can do is to have my family outside of Russia. That's the only thing.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Political prisoners in the Soviet Union. Today we have more than 100 in Russia. So that's of course a preferred method. There are many attacks. There is harassment. People are forced into exile and of course as we have just been discussing Many of our friends and colleagues have lost their lives in the last few years for opposing the regime. So these are the ways that usually happen to opponents. They haven't really tried to keep anybody out. I mean, it would be even by their standards, it would be difficult to do that. So they try to deal with people another way.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The only person that they haven't actually led into the country is Vladimir Bukowski, who's a legendary figure in a Soviet dissident movement, and he's still, I mean, he's not as active now, but he's still a very legendary figure and very high authority for many people. They have actually stripped him of his Russian citizenship, which is not allowed by the Russian Constitution. But as you rightly say, they don't care much for legal niceties. So he's the only person that they've done this to. As for the others, I mean, we see that there are different ways of dealing with people. I mean, a lot of people, of course, are wrongfully convicted and imprisoned as political prisoners, according to the latest report by the memorial human rights center, which is the most respected human rights organization in Russia. We have more than 100 political and religious prisoners in Russia today, in Russian prisons. So people who are in prison only for their political and religious views. This is a figure that's already approaching late Soviet numbers. And when Andrei Sakharov wrote his Nobel lecture 1975, he listed 100”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, they can't not let me into the country. I'm a Russian citizen. I mean, how do you not let a citizen of the country into the country?”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because I want my children to be able to go back to a free and democratic Russia. I don't want them to grow up knowing that their country is ruled by kleptocratic, authoritarian strongman, by completely anachronistic regime. I mean, we're in the 21st century now. Russia is a European country. It's not okay to have one man clinging to power for two decades and stealing blind. I mean, that's not the normal course of events. And, you know, when my kids grow up and when as these things inevitably happen, when everybody understands everything about the nature of the Putin regime, it happens like this always, when dictatorships fall, people look back and they see, well, how didn't we see that at the time? This was so obvious. And this will happen in Russia as well. And when my children grow up and they ask me, you know, daddy, what did you do when all this was happening to our country? I want to have something to answer to them.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I hope that when my children grow up, they'll understand why. I was doing this. And our oldest now is 12 years old, and I think she's beginning to understand somewhat already. But frankly, part of why I'm doing this is...”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My family is in the US, and it's just for basic safety reasons. I have the right to risk myself. I don't have the right to risk my family, so that's different. Yes, my family is outside of Russia, and actually many of our colleagues have had to do that, not specifically. But your family lives with...”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that's our reality. I mean, we know and we have known for a long time that it's a dangerous vocation to engage in active political opposition to the Putin regime, to advocate for democracy and political freedom and the rule of law in Russia. We have known that it's a dangerous vocation to cross the path of the Kremlin in any way. I mean, there's been a strangely high mortality rate in recent years among the people who oppose Vladimir Putin, independent journalists, civil society activists, anti-corruption campaigners, opposition activists, opposition leaders. Of course, the assassination of Boris Nemtsov in February of 2015 was the most brazen and the most high-profile political assassination in modern Russia. And so we know this is the reality.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So certainly I'm very happy and very, very fortunate to be sitting here speaking with you today. Of course, I have no doubt that this was done as retribution for my political activities in Russian opposition. More specifically, I think in retribution to my work on the Magnitsky Act, because that is the thing that they fear, they fear most.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So there were two poisoning attempts on me. One was in 2015 in May, actually almost to the day three months after Boris Nemtsov was killed. And the second one was just last year in 2017. Both of them were in Moscow and both of them were done in exactly the same way. So this was some kind of a very strong and sophisticated toxic substance, which knocked out all of my major body organs within the space of a few hours. I was in a multiple organ failure. I was in a coma and on life support. And both times doctors told my wife that I had about a 5% chance to survive.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My favorite topic for conversation, as you can imagine But when I say that I'm happy to be here, I really mean this in more ways than one.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many other countries in an effort to convince more of the world's democracies to shut their doors, to corrupt illicit money, and to send a clear message that the crooks and the rights abusers will no longer be welcome on their soil.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it holds to account the people who abuse the rights of Russian citizens and who steal the money of Russian taxpayers. And the Kremlin tries to present the Magnitsky Act as anti-Russian. There's nothing anti-Russian about holding to account the crooks and human rights abusers who steal from and who abuse the rights of Russian people. It's a pro-Russian law. And in December of that same year, 2012, it was passed in the U.S. Senate by 92 votes out of 100. I don't know many pieces of legislation nowadays that gets such a high support. And on December 6th of 2012, it was signed by President Obama and became law. And since then, Canada, the three Baltic states, and now as of the last few days, the United Kingdom have passed the same legislation. And we are continuing to work with other countries. I'll be in a few weeks, I'll be in Copenhagen to testify to the Danish parliament in support of the same measure, also working with parliamentarians in the Netherlands, in Sweden, in Norway, in Australia.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Had it not been for Orish Nemtsov. That's, I think that's an astonishing thing to say for the United States Senate, and not many people would say that. But I saw this with my own eyes. This was absolutely true. And on The Magnitsky bill was being voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives where it passed with more than 80% support. This was November 16, 2012. Boris Nemtsov and I were sitting on the gallery in the U.S. House chamber in Washington watching them vote on this bill. And Boris turned to me and said, this is the most pro-Russian law ever passed in any foreign country”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And on the day, so we spent almost three years working extensively with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to convince them to do this, to take the step. And Boris Nemtsov played an absolutely instrumental role. In fact, Senator John McCain said publicly on the record that there wouldn't have been a Magnitsky Act in the U.S.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A British citizen murdered on British soil using a radioactive substance and the British government wanted to do nothing about it. They didn't want to have an inquiry. It took Marina Litvinenko, Alexander's widow, nine years, almost nine years to go through the entire British judicial system to basically force the British government to have an inquiry on this. And as you know, this inquiry concluded that this assassination was likely carried out on orders of the highest levels of Russian government. But the UK has become now the sixth country in the world to pass the Magnitsky Law. The United States was the first. The US passed a law in 2012.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it still would have, but it would probably have taken a longer time than it did. I mean, it did take a long time anyway. We have worked with British members of parliament on this issue for years. But I think it did help open a lot of people's eyes to the nature of the Putin issue. I mean, as if they needed another reminder that so many things have already happened on British soil, as you know. Several people who have in one way or another crossed the path of the Putin regime have died on British soil in the last several years because the most well-known case is the case of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Britain is one of the most important countries to have the Magnitsky Act in, and we have worked there for years. In fact, just a few days ago, I was in London for another hearing at Westminster at the British Parliament. It was about human rights in Russia. And I spoke again about the importance of putting a stop to this flow of corrupt, dirty money from the Putin regime to Great Britain. And on the 1st of May, something absolutely astonishing happened. The British Parliament, by consent, by agreement between the Conservative and the Labour Parties, has amended the sanctions and anti-money laundering legislation to include the Magnitsky provision, to include the provision that those who are involved in gross human rights abuses abroad, not just in Russia anywhere, will no longer be able to happen.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, I'm hesitant to comment on the US domestic political developments, but I think for me, the main message of the story, and when the story broke out, I was asked myself to comment on several US news networks about this. And everybody was kind of focused on whether or not this constituted collusion. I leave that to Americans to decide. For me, the main story in this. How desperate the Kremlin regime is to try to overturn or weaken the Magnitsky.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Russian pro-democracy movement in one of our projects is specifically directed to kind of transparency and anti-corruption cases. It's called the dossier project and some of the documents that we help publish actually show that Veselnitske was in direct coordination, was acting a direct coordination with the Russian State Prosecutor General. And she never actually even herself hid the fact that she's a close friend of Yurochai Kaputin's prosecutor general. So, okay, she doesn't hold any official government positions, but the Soviets also, the KGB also was known to use unofficial proxies, unofficial kind of intermediaries to go and do the kind of one-off jobs that they were asked to do. What does it say?”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the end of 2012, that he knows of only two organizations in the world that harm their own children to scare their opponents. One is Hamas, and the other is United Russia Party, which is led by Vladimir Putin. I can think of no better way of saying this. So in all of these many ways, the Kremlin has shown that reversing the Magnitsky Act is an absolute top priority for them, because that goes directly to their own personal financial interests. And so this meeting is in Trump Tower in the summer of 2016 was just another illustration that they're ready to do any avenues, any methods to try to get to this goal, including using unofficial proxies. I mean, much was made of the fact that Natalia Viselnitsky, this lawyer's aquatic meeting from the Russian side, that she was not a government official. Well, first of all, as just a few days ago, there were documents that were published as part of the dossier project at the Open Russia Organization, which is the organization where I'm the vice chairman.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, adoptions is the code word for the Magnitsky because, of course, that's the Kremlin tries to frame it. And I think if you need an image of the moral character of the Putin regime or the lack of it rather, it would be that, that they responded to the blacklisting of human rights abusers by denying thousands of Russian children a second chance in life. And there's a prominent Russian journalist, Valeri Panushkin, who said at the time,”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And including stopping the adoptions that were already in process. So the families have been already matched up with the kids. And that was stopped in the middle. And we know of at least two children who died in Russian orphanages as a result of not being able to go.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Shocked even the most seasoned Kremlin watchers. And you remember how the resmoders, right? They promised when the Magnitsky Act was being passed, they said, we're going to respond asymmetrically, of course, which is the only way they could because. Not many US government officials hold their pension savings in Russian banks Own property on the region. So, the only way they could respond was asymmetrically, but the precise nature of their response, I think, was shocking to even the most seasoned Russia watchers. And what they did was in response for the United States blacklisting specific human rights abusers from its territory, Putin introduced a blanket ban on U.S. citizens adopting Russian orphan children.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think this Trump Tower meeting shows How important the magnitsky act is to the Putin regime and how important Weak Overturning it, potentially repeating it is how much of a priority that is for the Kremlin. I mean, they're not even making a secret out of it. One of the first decrees that Vladimir Putin signed on May 7th of 2012 when he officially returned to the presidency. A decree outlining the tasks for the Russian Foreign Ministry, and one of those tasks this was written pen on paper by Putin himself, one of those tasks was to prevent the Magnitskyak from coming into force in the United States. So they're saying it themselves. When the Magnitsky law was passed in the US in December of 2012, Way Putin responded to it.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely, the allies, the oligarchs, the closest cronies. I mean, in fact, you know, when Putin came to power, according to Forbes magazine, just to understand the magnitude of the problem, we had four dollar-term billionaires in Russia at the end of the 90s. Today we have more than 100, and the vast majority of them close cronies of Vladimir Putin, his old colleagues from the KGB, his old judo partners, his colleagues from the St. Petersburg City Hall, from the Oziro Daccia Cooperative Near St. Petersburg. This is an astonishingly nepotistic regime where you have the people who have used their proximity to Putin to enrich themselves at the expense of the Russian people, at the expense of the Russian taxpayers. So, you know, for now, because of the system we have in Russia where these people control the entire state, including the judicial system, there is no way for now we can hold these people to account in our own country. So what the Magnitsky Act does is it holds them to account internationally. As I mentioned, they steal in Russia and spend in the West. So for now, there's nothing.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have for years been stealing in Russia but spending in the West. The same people who have been abusing and attacking and undermining the most basic norms of the democracy and the rule of law in Russia have been themselves and for their families enjoying their protections and privileges provided by democracy in Western countries because it's in Western countries whether by real estate hold bank accounts send their children to schools and their wives and mistresses to live go vacation and go shopping and all the rest of it and of course this is phenomenal hypocrisy on their side if they ever cared but what's equally important this constitutes enabling in our view by Western countries because if you welcome the perpetrators of corruption and human rights abuses in Russia on your soil and in your banks then you are in effect enabling corruption and human rights abuses in Russia and the Magnitsky Act puts a stop to that that was the principle behind the Magnitsky law”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Magnitsky Act is seen by the Kremlin as the biggest threat. The Magnitsky Act does is it lays down a very simple principle, or at least what should be a very simple principle, that those people Who are complicit in corruption and human rights abuses in their own countries will no longer be able to come to the US to receive US visas to own US assets or to use the US banking and financial system. Sounds really simple, right? The reason this is so Terrifying for Because of course, that's how they've lived for years. I mean, there's this fundamental and phenomenal hypocrisy and double standard right at the heart of the Putin system of power where you have the people. The senior officials and the oligarchs in the Putin regime.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I mean, I was interviewed recently by an American journalist. I don't remember the name of the magazine now, but he asked me. He said, I know you were a close friend, so forgive me for how this question is going to sound. But he asked me, Do you think those who ordered him killed made a mistake in doing so? And I responded that my answer is going to sound even more awkward. No, I don't think they did because they killed the strongest one. They killed the best one of all of us. He was the most prominent, the most charismatic, the most effective opposition leader against Vladimir Putin's regime in so many different ways. I mean, he was, for example, instrumental in helping to convince the U.S. Congress to adopt the Magnitsky law.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With four or five hundred people, a hostile audience, you could feel the tension in the ear. And he would speak and debate and argue and answer questions and respond back. And you do this for an hour, two hours, three hours. After he was done, two-thirds of the room was on his side. I've never seen anybody else in Russia do this. He was able to speak to very different audiences. That's another very important trait that not many people have. I mean, he was able to speak effectively to a United States senator or a European parliamentarian and to a local market saleswoman somewhere in Yaroslav, on the Volga region. And that's actually how he won his last election in 2013, when he had no access to the media, no access to the official political process, but he just literally walked with his own two feet around the city and convinced enough people to win the election.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Successful government experience in the 90s. He was somebody who was an absolutely brilliant communicator. I mean, again, I've spent a long time now in politics and I've not seen anybody, at least in Russia. who was able to communicate with people the way he was. And that's, as obviously we know, that's a very important talent you need to be successful in politics. I mean, he could walk into a room.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would have one day become the leader of Russia because we simply have no people of such stature left. I mean, he combined so many things in himself. I mean, first of all, he had government experience, which is something very few of us have, because Putin's now been in power for almost two decades, right? We now have an entire generation that grew up under this regime. We haven't had the opportunity to have government experience, those of us in opposition. He had that and he had very successful government experience. In the 90s that were generally speaking a very difficult time economically in Russia, the Nizhny Novgorod region, where he was an elected governor, was an economic miracle. I mean, he had people from all over the world, including from the US. You had the congressional leaders, Dick Gephardt and Newt Gingrich go to Nizhny Novgorod to witness with their own eyes to see how is it possible that in the middle of this economic chaos, you have this one region which successfully conducted privatization, which successfully defeated inflation, which showed really impressive economic growth figures. All of this while the rest of the country was struggling. So he had very”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was the best president Russian ever had. Had he become president of Russia. As Boris Yeltsin wanted him to, by the way, he made it clear, including publicly and his family, friends, and colleagues, Yeltsin's family friends and colleagues, are still ready to confirm it today. He wanted Boris Nemtsov to succeed him as president. And I'm certain that had he lived.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He always, and that was one of his, I think that was one of his defining qualities. He always treated you as a human being, regardless of status, regardless of position, regardless of any of these formalities. He always treated a human being as a human being. And this is the quality that was with him always. And so that's when we began to work at the end of the 90s in 1999. I've worked with him until the day he was killed. So for more than 15 years, and I've seen him in many different situations.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely make it clear to you, you know, where they are and where you are. If you work with somebody who was, for example, a one-time senior government official, he would make it clear that he was a one-time senior government official in his whole attitude, that he would show that he's somewhere up there and you're somewhere down here. When I met with Boris, so again, he just resigned as deputy prime minister. He was leading a party in the parliamentary elections. And I was a nobody. I was an 18-year-old student journalist. And yet he would never sense the distance.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I will always consider this the greatest blessing of my life to have worked with this man side by side for more than 15 years. We met when I was 18, and he had a student and a journalist, and he just recently resigned from the Russian government as Deputy Prime Minister. He was running for parliament, the election which he would win, and he would become the leader of the opposition in the Russian Duma. So this was in 1999 during the campaign when we met. And you know what struck me immediately was his attitude and his outlook. I mean, I've, in my now almost two decades in Russian politics, I have dealt with and worked with a lot of political leaders. I can tell you that a lot of them. You know, they would.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I mean, normally that would be, of course, a clear conflict of interest if you're a journalist, politician at the same time. This wasn't the case with me because I was. Always a journalist covering foreign issues, international issues. So first I was a journalist in the UK, so covering British politics. And then when in 2004, I was offered a job of Washington Bureau chief for RTVI, which was a small privately owned satellite television network in Russia, I was covering US politics, US presidential campaign. So it had nothing to do with Russian politics. And of course, I was always a politician in Russia. All my political activity was domestic in Russia. So I traveled back and forth all the time. And it was actually as a journalist that I met Boris Nemtsov. Yes, that's exactly.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Putin's transformation of Russia from the imperfect and flawed, but nevertheless a functioning democracy that it was when he came to power to the authoritarian state that it is today. In 2003, he shut down the last independent television network. This was in June. In October of that year, he arrested and jailed Michael Khodorkovsky, the richest man in Russia who supported the opposition, ahead of the elections, who supported civil society groups, who exposed government corruption, and that was a clear message that this behavior would not be tolerated. And that same year in December, at the end of the year, we had that not fair election that resulted in the elimination of genuine opposition from parliament. And since then, so for almost 15 years now, the Russian parliament has been basically a rubber stamp. And as its own speaker famously described it, not a place for discussion.”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was a candidate in a district in the south of Moscow. I was the youngest candidate in that parliamentary election. I was 22 years old and I'm proud to say that was the only candidate. I'm also sorry to say that I was the only candidate because I wish there were more, but I was the only candidate in the country that was jointly backed by the two main pro-democracy opposition parties, the Union of Right Forces, led by Boris Nemtsov and the Ablika led by Grigory Ovlinsky. Russian opposition is notoriously unable to agree among themselves, among ourselves, keep bickering about small issues instead of focusing on what should unite us. But in my district, we managed to unite. And I actually had a pretty good result for a 22-year-old with no money. I came second out of 10 candidates, got about 24,000 votes. But of course, none of us won. And that was the watershed election. 2003 was a watershed year generally, because three things happened that year that basically completed”
2020-09-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of the Axe Files: Vladimir Kara-Murza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source